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Baptism is the sacrament in which believers are “reborn as sons of God” (CCC 1213) by “water and Spirit” (John 3:5). It incorporates us into the Mystical Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13) and makes us sharers in the mission of the Church (CCC 1213). “Just as the gestation of our first birth took place in water,” the Catechism adds, “so the water of baptism truly signifies that our birth into the divine life is given to us in the Holy Spirit” (694). This divine life in the Spirit, also known as sanct …

In the Gospels, Jesus appears to make contradictory statements regarding the kingdom of God. The Lord indicates that the “kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15) but also says “my kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Theologians struggled with reconciling these statements in relation to the Church and developed the understanding that the Church is the “already and the not yet.” The Church is already the kingdom of God because some of its members, the saints, are in communion with God in he …

People lament that there is no longer a Christendom, but, you know, Christendom wasn’t exactly heaven on Earth. The Church doesn’t have worldly power any longer, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.So it has to be nuanced, this idea that we’re living in a post-Christian world that’s so much worse than it was in the past. In some ways, we’re more similar to Christians living in the Roman Empire of the first century than to those in other eras throughout the centuries. It’s almost like we’re …